Translating and transcribing TED videos
Despite becoming familiar with the TED movement less than a year ago, I have listened to quite a few speeches either about language peculiarities or medicine and can assure that the ideas delivered are, true to their word, "worth spreading". Hence, as an independent TED event TEDxRiga was being organized in Latvia this month, I wanted to be a part of it and help the cause. Looking for volunteer opportunities, I found not only a call for volunteers at the live event, but also an ongoing worldwide project aiming to make TED talks more accessible by translating them in languages other than the original. The Open Translation Project (OTP), launched in 2009 with 200 volunteer translators working in 40 languages, is now bringing together thousands of volunteers who are willing to dedicate their free time towards transcription and translation of TED Talks. After slight hesitation due to the awareness of the responsibility that comes with the task, I decided to give translation a try.
First, I got in touch with the OTP Latvian coordinators in order to become a member of the Latvian TED team. Having read the official rules for the translators and memorized most of the guidelines before signing up, I was ready to get to work as soon as my application got accepted. Although I knew the limits regarding characters per line and the specific measure of characters per second, I was initially worried about the technical aspects of subtitling. However, the Amara website on which the process is carried out, is specifically designed to make subtitling of various videos extremely easy, for it allows line-by-line translation as well as synchronization of sound and the image.
When looking for the first video to translate from English to Latvian, my main criteria were its length and general topic. Since I had never done any serious translation and was not confident about my skills, I preferred shorter videos, and a four-minute video about nature and biology, namely bees, was a perfect fit. While the video 'Why do honeybees love hexagons' by Zack Patterson and Andy Peterson went under the TED-Ed category rather than that of traditional TED Talks, meaning that it was an animated clip not a speech, it still proved quite challenging to translate. Most importantly, it was sufficient for first experience as I already encountered several obstacles.
In several instances deciding between translating literally or simply conveying the idea was quite hard, especially when some words appeared to lose the implied connotation if translated directly. Also, I struggled to compress the translated text so that it would not exceed 42 characters per line, 80 characters per frame and 21.0 character per second as noted in the guidelines for volunteers. Not being fully aware of the option to synchronize the translation at the time, I sometimes spent a lot of time trying to think of a shorter word that would substitute a lengthier one although it was not really necessary. Some other problems arose after my translation was revised by another translator, for - while the process is referred to as 'collaboration' - the website is designed in a way that an actual debate between collaborators would be of no use since each one is only able to turn in their own work. Thus, numerous lines in my translation were changed in ways that I was not willing to agree with, and yet I could only approach the person who revised the work but neither of us could change anything back. Our major disagreement, for example, was about translation of the word 'beehive' - I chose a word that represents the hive that exists in wild and corresponds to the animation, whereas Ilze, my collaborator, decided that a more commonly used term would be more suitable, in spite of it being inaccurate from biological point of view in the particular case. In addition, she consequently substituted the Latvian term for 'need' with a synonym, although it made no difference. When asked about it, her only explanation was that other collaborators had done that in her works. She admitted to not knowing the reason for it, and I do not consider that a justification for altering my work.
Nevertheless, the video with its final translation, most of which was still done by me, can be seen HERE.
Having acquired the skills needed to work with the subtitling software, I translated another TED video this month: a ten-minute TED Talk, delivered by Stephen Friend, on a topic I am very interested in - genetics. He talked about developing new preventive therapies for genetically inherited childhood diseases and suggested a whole new approach. His Resilience Project that now enters its beta phase seeks to examine people who carry a genetic risk but do not get sick because of some other protective genes, "unexpected heroes". If compared to the first video I translated, this contained a lot more scientific terms for which I had to seek Latvian equivalents. Unsurprisingly, the project itself did not have one, as records of it in Latvian literature were yet to be made, meaning that I had to think of a well-sounding name that would more or less maintain the original meaning. Considering that the name of the project was not altered during revision, I deduce that my version was acceptable.
Zack Patterson & Andy Peterson: Why do honeybees love hexagons?
After solving some technical problems that occurred because of the translation be not exactly direct, the video is available HERE. It has not been revised yet, so the latest (not the final) version of subtitles can be read.
Furthermore, during the last week of June, regardless of my translating skills being far from perfect, I decided to try transcribing as well. Apart from doing something I have never done before, I also wanted to see, whether I can in fact distinguish and understand every single word spoken in English and write them down in a proper manner. Contrary to my expectations, transcribing was, at times, even harder than translating, especially since one indistinguishable phrase or word was enough to make the whole transcript useless. Ironically, in the 12 minute video - a speech Economics of Enough, given at TEDxOxbridge - there was indeed a single five-second sentence that remained unclear even after repeating it 30 times. I could make out several words that the speaker emphasized, but the main thought as well as the reason for the laughter that followed was very difficult to decipher. In the end, however, listening word by word, I distinguished enough to get the message, and that left only a phrase that logically involved the name of some TV series. So, after searching for ''British Television series'' I triumphantly found the mysterious word to be 'EastEnders' - a British soap opera.
Stephen Friend: The hunt for unexpected genetic heroes
Furthermore, during the last week of June, regardless of my translating skills being far from perfect, I decided to try transcribing as well. Apart from doing something I have never done before, I also wanted to see, whether I can in fact distinguish and understand every single word spoken in English and write them down in a proper manner. Contrary to my expectations, transcribing was, at times, even harder than translating, especially since one indistinguishable phrase or word was enough to make the whole transcript useless. Ironically, in the 12 minute video - a speech Economics of Enough, given at TEDxOxbridge - there was indeed a single five-second sentence that remained unclear even after repeating it 30 times. I could make out several words that the speaker emphasized, but the main thought as well as the reason for the laughter that followed was very difficult to decipher. In the end, however, listening word by word, I distinguished enough to get the message, and that left only a phrase that logically involved the name of some TV series. So, after searching for ''British Television series'' I triumphantly found the mysterious word to be 'EastEnders' - a British soap opera.
Now, as soon as the transcript gets accepted, the video with English subtitles will be available HERE.
Dan O'Neill: Economics of Enough
Overall, while I think I am better at transcribing, I intend to keep translating videos on regular basis until, hopefully, even the first draft will not sound clumsy.
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My reflections
Since I enjoy watching TED videos whenever I find something of interest, and consider the majority of TED Talks truly inspirational, I knew I wanted to engage somehow in the TEDx event that was held in Riga this month as soon as I heard about it. An option I initially considered was volunteering at the actual event; yet, after browsing the official webpage for some time I stumbled upon a more unusual opportunity - participating in the Open Translation Project as a volunteer translator. Not being particularly confident about my translation skills and fearing the enormous responsibility that comes along with this task, I hesitated for a while, but decided to take the challenge and do my best.
Thus, I contacted the Latvian coordinators of this wonderful project, handed in my application and familiarized myself with the rules for translators that contained important information about the permissible number of characters per line and per second. Having done that, I could explore the subtitling software on the Amara website and begin working on my first translation. Overall, this month I translated two TED videos - "Why do honeybees love hexagons?" by Zack Patterson and Andy Peterson, and "The hunt for unexpected genetic heroes" by Stephen Friend. While the program made line-by-line translation rather convenient, direct translation, without altering the word order, resulted in clumsy sentences, whereas reversing sentence structures made following the speaker's voice difficult. Also, despite the videos being on more or less scientific topics, both contained some metaphors, bizarre expressions and names that did not have an official Latvian translation, and thinking of phrases that would sound well and still maintain the implied connotation was certainly a bigger challenge than I had expected. Ironically, I found that having a look at an already accepted Russian translation of the same TED videos made the whole process a lot easier, which appears to indicate that it is a more similar language to Latvian, at least regarding sentence structures.
Yet, most of the problems arose after my submitted translation was revised by another collaborator, for the Amara system is not designed in a way that allows for actual collaboration and discussion. For instance, I translated the word 'beehive' according to the video animation, but the person revising my work, to whom I could only send a message when the subtitles could not be altered anymore, retreated to a more common, though, in this case, biologically inaccurate translation. Disappointingly, the online translation system attempts to avoid the subtitles being a work of a single person by allowing somebody else make entirely subjective alterations in the former's work, which is neither fair nor effective in my opinion. Still, contacting my collaborator and discussing the issue with her, even if it had no practical use, increased my confidence and the ability to stand by my views whilst working in a team.
In addition to translation, I also tried transcribing, which seemed easier and more enjoyable until a single indistinguishable phrase almost ruined everything. Having no Facebook account, I could not turn for help in the official TED community, and I was worried that my seven-hour work would turn out to be pointless because of one five-second phrase that remained unclear after 30 listening times. In the end, however, I somehow managed to decipher that it contained a quietly mumbled name of the British soap opera, 'EastEnders'. Even if this cannot be considered a particularly serious achievement, I am proud that I overcame the obstacle and wrote a transcript that has already been reviewed and accepted without alterations.
Yet, most of the problems arose after my submitted translation was revised by another collaborator, for the Amara system is not designed in a way that allows for actual collaboration and discussion. For instance, I translated the word 'beehive' according to the video animation, but the person revising my work, to whom I could only send a message when the subtitles could not be altered anymore, retreated to a more common, though, in this case, biologically inaccurate translation. Disappointingly, the online translation system attempts to avoid the subtitles being a work of a single person by allowing somebody else make entirely subjective alterations in the former's work, which is neither fair nor effective in my opinion. Still, contacting my collaborator and discussing the issue with her, even if it had no practical use, increased my confidence and the ability to stand by my views whilst working in a team.
In addition to translation, I also tried transcribing, which seemed easier and more enjoyable until a single indistinguishable phrase almost ruined everything. Having no Facebook account, I could not turn for help in the official TED community, and I was worried that my seven-hour work would turn out to be pointless because of one five-second phrase that remained unclear after 30 listening times. In the end, however, I somehow managed to decipher that it contained a quietly mumbled name of the British soap opera, 'EastEnders'. Even if this cannot be considered a particularly serious achievement, I am proud that I overcame the obstacle and wrote a transcript that has already been reviewed and accepted without alterations.
Altogether I find participating in the Open Translation Project very interesting and challenging in the most pleasant way, which is why I plan to keep up this activity and translate at least one TED video each month. I hope that the awareness that translating and transcribing allows the talks to reach a wider global audience will be enough for me not to give up this resolution.
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